Shofar FTP Archive File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-18/tgmwc-18-170.09

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Last-Modified: 2000/09/11
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, you have got some other papers to
put in?
[Page 72]
MR. DODD: I would like to offer, Mr. President, Document 406-
PS, which is the bulletin of the Reich Minister for Armament
and Munitions, and it is a matter that the Tribunal, in our
judgement, may take judicial notice of. It is an official
publication but it will be quite helpful in connection with
the labour programme as between Sauckel and Speer and it is
offered for that purpose, to clear up some of the doubts
that may have arisen after the Speer and Sauckel testimony.
I think there is no necessity to read it at all but simply
to offer it, and it would become Exhibit USA 902.
And then I would like to offer Document 1452-PS. This is a
report of a conference of the chiefs with the Chief of the
Department of the Economic Armament Office, and I would just
like to read a short excerpt from it. It is Document 1452-
PS, dated 24th March, 1942. It says:
"Conference of the Chiefs with the Chief of the
Department. Report of the Chief of the Department on the
conference on 23rd March with Milch, Wetzell, Leeb, in
Minister Speer's office. The Fuehrer looks upon Speer as
his principal mouthpiece, his trusted adviser in all
economic spheres. Speer is the only one who today can say
anything. He can interfere in any department. He already
disregards all other departments."
The remainder of the document we do not wish to quote. I do
not think it is necessary because the sense of the text is
not changed in any way by what we have quoted from it. That
becomes Exhibit USA 903.
Now, we also have here some photographs, Mr. President, and
these are offered with respect to the defendant
Kaltenbrunner. They were turned over to us by our colleagues
of the French prosecution. And the first one is F 894, which
becomes Exhibit USA 904. That is a picture showing Himmler
congratulating someone, Kaltenbrunner immediately to his
rear.
THE PRESIDENT: How are they identified?
MR. DODD: I will submit it - well, these are all captured
documents, of course, but - you mean in the picture, Mr.
President?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I mean by capture or any other way, where
do they come from?
MR. DODD: Well, I assume them to be all captured documents.
Oh, I see now - there are affidavits attached to each one
which explain their source. This first one is of a man by
the name of Francois Boix, who says that he is a
photographer and was interned at Mauthausen, and so on, and
he attests that this photograph was taken, and so forth. I
think that is sufficient - I assume it is - to identify the
picture. I believe that each one of them has a similar
statement.
Now the next one is F 896, which becomes Exhibit USA 905.
And this as well on the back of the original bears an
affidavit by Francois Boix.
The next one is F 897, which becomes Exhibit USA 906. This,
as well, bears the affidavit of Francois Boix and shows
Kaltenbrunner and Himmler and other SS officials.
And then lastly, Document F 895, which becomes Exhibit USA
907, and this picture we particularly call to the Tribunal's
attention. It, as well, bears the certificate of Francois
Boix. Kaltenbrunner is there in the second row, Himmler and
Hitler in the immediate centre between Kaltenbrunner and,
apparently, Martin Bormann, taken at a concentration camp,
which appears from the picture of the inmates on the left
side.
Then we wish to offer a very short affidavit, which is
Document 4033-PS and we offer it as Exhibit USA 908. It is
the deposition of Oswald Pohl, P-o-h-l, dated 28th May,
1946. The affidavit - the substance of the affidavit reads
as follows:
"I can say with absolute certainty that on the occasion
of a duty call at Mauthausen I saw and spoke to SS
Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner - "
THE PRESIDENT: One moment. Was Pohl called as a witness?
[Page 73]
MR. DODD: No, sir, he was not, he was not called. That was
Puhl, P-u-h-l. The names are similar.
" ... I saw and spoke to SS Obergruppenfuehrer
Kaltenbrunner, there at the officers' mess on the right-
hand side of the camp entrance either in the autumn of
1943 or the spring of 1944. I took lunch with him there
at the mess table."
And then another affidavit, Document 4032-PS, which becomes
Exhibit USA 909. I think it is unnecessary to read this; it
has been translated. It is the deposition of one Karl Reif,
R-e-i-f, in which he states that he saw Kaltenbrunner either
in May or June about midday in 1942 in the camp at
Mauthausen.
That is all we have to offer, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Do the other members of the prosecution wish
to offer any other evidence?
Then now we can pass to the evidence to be called on behalf
of Bormann. Dr. Bergold, will you call the witness you wish
to call; Kempka.
DR. BERGOLD (counsel for the defendant Bormann): Gentlemen
of the Tribunal, I shall call the witness Kempka.
ERICH KEMPKA, a witness, took the stand and testified as
follows:
BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q. Will you state your full name, please.
A. My name is Erich Kempka.
Q. Will you repeat this oath after me:
I swear by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will
speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing.
(The witness repeated the oath.)
THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down.
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY DR. BERGOLD:
Q. Witness, in what capacity were you employed near Hitler
during the war?
A. During the war I worked for Adolf Hitler as his personal
driver.
Q. Did you meet Martin Bormann in that capacity?
A. Yes, I met Martin - Reichsleiter Martin Bormann in that
capacity at that time.
Q. Witness, on what day did you see the defendant Martin
Bormann for the last time?
A. I saw the Reichsleiter, the former Reichsleiter Martin
Bormann on the night of 1st and 2nd May, 1945, near the
Friedrichstrasse railway station at the Weidendamm Bridge.
Reichsleiter Bormann - former Reichsleiter Bormann asked me
what the general situation was near the Feiedrichstrasse
Station, and I told him that at the station it was hardly
possible -
THE PRESIDENT (interposing): You are going too fast. He
asked you what?
THE WITNESS: He asked me what the situation was and whether
one could get through at the Friedrichstrasse Station. I
told him that was practically impossible, since the
defensive fighting there was too heavy. Then he went on to
ask whether it might be possible to do so with armoured
vehicles. I told him that that could only be proved by
trying to do so.
Then, a few tanks and SPW cars came along, and small groups
began to cling to them. Then the armoured vehicles pushed
their way through the anti-tank trap and afterwards the
leading tank, beside which Martin Bormann was walking along
about at the middle of the tank on the left-hand side,
suddenly received a direct hit, I imagine from a bazooka
fired from a window, and was blown up. A flash of fire
suddenly shot up on the very side where Bormann was walking,
and I saw -
[Page 74]
THE PRESIDENT: You are going too fast. You are still going
much too fast. The last thing I heard you say was that
Bormann was walking in the middle of the column. Is that
right?
THE WITNESS: Yes, at the middle of the tank, on the left-
hand side, Martin -
Then, after it had got forty to fifty metres through the
anti-tank trap, this tank received a direct hit, I imagine
from a bazooka fired from a window. The tank was blown to
pieces right there where Martin - Reichsleiter Bormann was
walking.
I myself was flung to one side by the explosion and by
having a person thrown against me who had been walking ahead
- I think it was Standartenfuehrer Dr. Stumpfecker - and I
became unconscious. When I came to myself, for a time I
could not see anything; I was blinded by the flash. Then I
crawled back again to the tank trap, and since then I have
not seen Martin Bormann.
BY DR. BERGOLD:
Q. Witness, did you see Martin Bormann collapse in the flash
of fire when it occurred?
A. Yes, indeed, I still saw a movement which was a sort of
collapsing. You might call it a flying away.
Q. Was this explosion so strong that according to your
observation Martin Bormann must have been killed?
A. Yes, I assume for certain that the strength of the
explosion was such that it killed him.
Q. How was Martin Bormann dressed at that time?
A. Martin Bormann was wearing a leather coat, an SS leader's
cap, and the insignia of an SS Obergruppenfuehrer.
Q. Do you therefore believe that if he had been found
wounded on that occasion he would have been immediately
identified by these clothes as being one of the leading men
of the movement?
A. Yes, indeed.
Q. You said that another man was walking either beside or
ahead of Martin Bormann, namely a Herr Naumann of the
Propaganda Ministry?
A. Yes, it was the former State Secretary, Dr. Naumann.
Q. Was he approximately at the, same distance from the
explosion?
A. No, he was about one or two metres ahead of Martin
Bormann.
Q. Have you seen anything of this State Secretary Naumann
subsequently?
A. No, I have not seen him again either. The same applies to
Standartenfuehrer Dr. Stumpfecker.
Q. At that time you crawled back, did you not?
A. Yes.
Q. Did not anyone follow you?
A. Yes. Always, when you passed behind that anti-tank trap,
you would run into defensive fire, and a few would remain
lying on the spot and the rest always went back, but those
who were with that tank I have never seen again.
DR. BERGOLD: Gentlemen of the Tribunal, I have no further
questions for this witness.
MR. DODD: I have no questions, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Do the defence counsel want to ask him any
questions?
BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q. How many tanks were there in this column?
A. That I cannot say at the moment - possibly two or three.
There may have been four, but there were more SPW cars,
armoured personnel carriers.
Q. How many were there of them?
A. More and more came up, and then some of them drove away
again. They tried to break through at that point. Possibly
one or two tried. The others withdrew after the tank was
blown up.
[Page 75]
Q. Where did the column start from?
A. That I would not know. They came quite suddenly - there
they were. I assume that they were tanks which had withdrawn
into the middle of the town and were also trying to break
out in a southerly direction.
Q. When you say they were there suddenly, where do you mean
they were? Where did they pick you up?
A. I was not picked up. I left the Reich Chancellery -
Q. Well, where did they join you? Where did you first see
them?
A. At the Weidendamm Bridge, behind the Friedrichstrasse
Station. They came up there during the night.
Q. Where was it that Bormann first asked you whether it
would be possible to get through?
A. That was at the tank block behind the Friedrichstrasse
Station at the Weidendamm Bridge.
Q. Do you mean that you met him in the street?
A. Yes. Martin Bormann was not present when we left the
Reich Chancellery; he did not appear at the bridge until
between 2 and 3 in the morning.
Q. You met him there just by chance, do you mean?
A. I only met him by chance, yes.
Q. Was there anybody with him?
A. State Secretary Dr. Naumann from the Ministry of
Propaganda was with him, as well as Dr. Stumpfecker who had
been the last doctor with the Fuehrer.
Q. How far were they from the Reich Chancellery?
A. From the Reich Chancellery to the Friedrichstrasse
Station is approximately a quarter of an hour's walk under
normal circumstances.
Q. And then you saw some tanks and some other armoured
vehicles coming along, is that right?
A. Yes, yes, indeed.
Q. German tanks and German armoured vehicles?
A. Yes, German armoured vehicles.
Q. Did you have any conversation with the drivers of them?
A. No, I did not talk to the drivers. I think State
Secretary - former State Secretary Dr. Naumann did.
Q. And then you did not get into the tanks or the armoured
vehicles?
A. No, we. did not get in - neither State Secretary Dr.
Naumann nor Reichsleiter Bormann.
Q. You just walked along?
A. I just walked along, yes.
Q. And where were you with reference to Bormann?
A. I was behind the tank, about - on the left-hand side
behind the tank.
Q. How far from Bormann?
A. It was perhaps three or four metres.
Q. And then some missile struck the tank, is that right?
A. No, I believe the tank was hit by a bazooka fired from a
window.
Q. And then you saw a flash and you became unconscious?
A. Yes, I suddenly saw a flash of fire and in the fraction
of a second I also saw Reichsleiter Bormann and State
Secretary Naumann both make a movement as if collapsing and
flying away. I myself was thrown aside with them at that
same moment and subsequently lost consciousness.

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